Saturday, March 29, 2014

Kent State journalism
graduates are outraged that the school refuses to open its records to prove that
spending $250,00 on its search for a new president was legal.

Former BJ and PD editor
Roger Mezger posted: “So sad to see a veteran former newsman like Eric
Mansfield go over to the dark side in trying to defend Kent
State's lame attempt to get away with breaking state law on open records.” Mansfield is a KSU spokesman.

Former BJ Managing Editor
Tim Smith, who opened a law office after he retired from Kent State’s
Communications faculty, writes: “Their hope is that no
one will sue and then they can continue to thumb their noses at the law and the
public.”

Kent State named Beverly Warren, provost of Virginia Commonwealth University, as its new president. She succeeded Lester A. Lefton, who retired. Lefton began his KSU presidency in 2006.

In contrast, the University of Akron released the names and applications of 19 candidates who seek to replace Luis Proenza, who will step down to return to teaching in June.

Former BJ reporter John
Dunphy got rocked by a magnitude-5.1 earthquake that struck the Los Angeles area Friday
night.Its epicenter was in Orange County, one mile east of La Habra and four miles north of Fullerton. John and wife Rebecca Allen live in Lakewood, California.

More than 30 aftershocks were reported
through the night. John reported a 3.6 aftershock Saturday morning.

John Dunphy's reaction to La Habra earthquake with help from PhotoDraw

Southern Californians felt the shaking in
Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura
counties. The quake was about 5 miles deep and 10 times larger than the March
17 magnitude-4.4 quake near in energy released.

Fire officials reported several small water
main breaks and gas leaks in La Habra, Fullerton and La Mirada. Southern
California Edison reported at least 2,000 customers without power.

The earthquake caused a rockslide in Carbon
Canyon in Brea, overturning a car causing minor injuries to one person. Carbon
Canyon Road was closed. 83 people were displaced from their homes in Fullerton.
Twenty apartment units in Fullerton were evacuated. Three homes in
Fullerton suffered major damage. Disneyland visitors were stuck on the
Matterhorn ride.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Change font, save millions

A 14-year-old has come up with a way for the federal and state governments to save $370 million a year: Change fonts on the stuff it prints.Garmond, with its thinner letters, requires less ink.Suvir Mirchandani first discovered the savings when, for his science project, he tested his Pittsburgh area Dorseyville Middle School middle school 's handouts from teachers. Chanel No. 5 perfume costs $38 per ounce, while Hewlett-Packard printer ink is $75.Gary Somerset, media and public relations manager at the Government Printing Office, describes Suvir's work as "remarkable." But he was noncommittal on whether the GPO would introduce changes to typeface, saying the GPO's efforts to become more environmentally sustainable were focused on shifting content to the Web.To read the entire article, click on http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/living/student-money-saving-typeface-garamond-schools/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Top-seller: JET milling machine

The online auction of machines, tools and other equipment from
the Beacon Journal Mechanical Services department concluded Wednesday with just
under $23,500 in bids.

Six items brought in about one-third of the total, with a
JET milling machine commanding the top price at $3,700. Next came a Birmingham lathe
($2,300), a Delta vertical band saw ($1,000), a large work cabinet ($750), a Craftsman
stack tool box ($650) and a steel work bench with vise ($550).

Every one of the 270 lots sold, with more than
three-quarters of them going for under $100. The lowest winning bid was 5 cents
for a debri net. Other bargain bids were 35 cents for a Rubbermaid cabinet and
70 cents for a roll-around computer station.

Former BJ reporter Barbara Mudrak passes along this photo with a BJ connection that she saw when she visited the Military Air Preservation Society (MAPS) Museum in Green.Hi, John,

Saw this in the MAPS military air museum in Green - Alliance High sophomores went on a field trip - and thought it was cool.

It's a photo of the Goodyear Aircraft plant during the war, when 50 percent of the employees were women. It's part of the Rosie the Riveter exhibit.

Anyway, some of them are holding up Beacons with the headline "TOKYO PLANTS AFLAME." No doubt taken by a BJ photographer.

Take care,

Barbara Mudrak

Paula and I visited the MAPS Museum in 2013 when former BJ Reference Librarian Sandy Fuller Bee Lynn and her siblings helped dedicate the MAPS display of their father, Henry Fuller, who was a World War II paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division (the famous Screaming Eagle) that jumped over Normandy on D-Day.

791 made the jump with the 502nd regiment. Henry was among the 126 survivors.

It's an impressive collection of airplanes and separate displays of specific individuals involved in America's air wars.

The MAPS Museum address is 2260 International Pkwy. You can see planes take off from nearby Akron/Canton Airport from MAPS. The phone number is (330) 896-6332 if you want to visit. It's worth the short hop to get there.

After leaving the BJ, Sandy worked for the Orrville and Wadsworth public libraries and lives in Doylestown.

He
was proud to have served in the U.S. Navy and retired in 1987 from the Akron
Beacon Journal after 31 years of service.

Charles
was a kind and loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was the
loving caregiver for his son Tommy for 60 years. Pop Pop adored his five
grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and his great-grandson to be born in
July 2014. We will all carry your memory and your love in our hearts.

A
special thank you for his caregivers at Heather Knoll.

He
was preceded in death by his wife, Marie; sisters, Rita King, Margaret
Stadelman and Marie Macdonald; brothers, Albert, Joseph and Edward.

He
is survived by his daughter, Christine (Zavin) Miktarian of Tallmadge; sons,
James (Diane) of Kent and Thomas of Stow; grandchildren, Bryan (Jenny)
Stadelman of Alpharetta, Georgia, Matthew (Joanna) Stadelman of Columbus, Katie
Thompson, Keegan Miktarian, both of Tallmadge, Kara Stadelman of Alexandria,
Virginia; great-grandchildren, Kaylee Thompson, Anneliese Stadelman, and
great-grandson to be born soon; sisters, Phyllis Nassos of Akron and Janet
(Gary) Jenkins of Florida.

Mass
of Christian Burial will be 11 a.m. Saturday, March 29, 2014 at Our Lady of
Victory Church, 73 North Ave., Tallmadge, with Rev. Michael Matusz officiating.
Interment will be at Holy Cross Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 until 8 p.m.
Friday at the Donovan Funeral Home, 17 Southwest Ave. (on the Historic
Tallmadge Circle).

In
lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Special Olympics, 1133 19th
St., NW, Washington, DC 20036 or to the charity of your choice.

Those
we hold most dear never truly leave us. They live on in the happiness they
showed, the joy they shared, and the love they brought into our lives.

As it has in newspapers all over the nation, the newsroom
reductions, by whatever name you want to give them -- buyouts, layoffs --
continued.

In 2006 more than 40 said goodbye to Beacon Blue.

In 2008 another 350 years of experience walked out the door,
packaged with a 15% across-the-board pay cut for those who remained.

This month the BJ notified the Guild that it wanted to pare five
more newsroom bodies through buyouts.

In the Features Department alone, no longer do David Bianculli,
Mark Dawidziak, Joan Rice, Jane Snow, Polly Paffilas, Don Rosenberg, Bill
O'Connor and John Olesky show up. Only their ghosts remain, to chat across the
room with icons Fran Murphey, Pat Englehart and Harry Liggett.

In what once had been a newsroom with maybe 250 dedicated workers,
if you included reporters, editors, interns and secretaries, the total will be
perilously close to 60 once the March reduction is put into place.

When Bluefield, West Virginia native John S. Knight died, his
newspaper empire was worth $1 billion and his personal wealth was $200 million.

Today, looking at what has happened to the Great Depression era
in-debt newspaper that he expanded into a newspaper chain, JSK may be setting
the record for grave revolutions per minute.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

And
now comes the ultimate downsizing, according to Professor of Computer Science
Dr. Kristian Hammond.

By
2030, computers will write newspaper stories, not humans.

Impossible? Well, the
Los Angeles Times published a story about a California earthquake three minutes
after it happened because the whole story was artificially generated by Hammond
and reporter and programmer Ken Schwencke’s computer algorithm.

Hammond said that “a computer could write stories worthy of a
Pulitzer Prize by 2017.”

While the L.A. Times is open about using a computer to write
stories, other newspapers are doing the same thing without revealing that no
humans were involved.

Computer-written stories are feasible, the article says, "because mainstream
news reporters working for the corporate press have increasingly abandoned
their role as adversarial checks against government."

Legend John Lanigan is retiring after 50 years on
morning radio, including 40 in Ohio. Lanigan has been on WMJI (105.7-FM) and,
before that, WGAR with a brief, unsatisfactory stint in Florida in between.

Lanigan has homes in Florida (“for when it snows”) and
Colorado (“for gorgeous summer scenery”) to look forward to in his retirement.
He is in his 70s.

Lanigan had a tough act to follow at WMJI – an even more
legendary Don Imus, who began his New York radio splash in 1971 with Imus in
the Morning. The Imus family has a cattle ranch in California, which Imus and
wife Deidre still run to benefit children with cancer.

Mark Nolan will replace Lanigan. Kat Jackson will take
over Nolan’s midday slot (while still working for WGAR-FM).

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Russ Musarra

Musarra home from hospital

BJ newsroom retiree Russ Musarra is home after six days in the hospital. Reports Russ:"My kidneys are functioning closer to normal. Thanks to everyone for their concern and prayers. Keep 'em coming."Russ was a BJ City Desk reporter and succeeded the late Polly Paffilas as the BJ's About Town columnist. He retired in 2000. Russ and wife Bev will celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary April 4. They have four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren,They moved to Streetsboro in 2003 after living 15 years in Northfield Center and 22 in Macedonia.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

It’s more than over

If language is misued long enough, the "wrong" word becomes acceptable.The latest: AP Stylebook editors decided that "over" can become interchangeable with "more than."Merriam-Webster dictionary doesn't give that description of "over" yet. Give M-W time. "Further" was misused so much to describe distance, rather than "farther," that they today are used interchangeably. Bob Dyer did a recent BJ column on misuse becoming so consistent that it becomes acceptable.Ford Motor, for example, has its latest commercials talk about "Go Further." Former BJ language purists Hal Fry and Art Cullison probably are spinning in their graves.Language is not set in concrete. In dictionaries, maybe. But even the dictionaries change what is acceptable.Long ago, gay meant a joyous, happy person, as in the Gay 90's. Today it also refers to homosexuals. Those who use the Bible to prove their points often overlook that the original meaning of the Jewish words have changed over the centuries and don't mean what they did when they were written. That sometimes means that today's interpretation of the Jewish word doesn't match what it meant the day it was written.I guess the sports betting term over/under can be changed to more than/less than, huh? To read the entire article, click on

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Clarissa Dickson Wright

It’s all
over when The Fat Lady no longer zings

Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright passed away. You might know her better as half the hosts of TV's "Two Fat Ladies," specialists in cooking and mischief. Wright and co-host Jennifer Paterson drove around the countryside in a motorcyle and a sidebar. Wright plowed through her 2.8 million pound inheritance on gin, champagne, yachts and private plane travel when that much money could buy 10 times more of g, c, y and ppt.She was the youngest woman barrister admitted to the English bar and out-ranked future prime minister Tony Blair at their law firm. Wright once had sex with an MP she refused to name behind the Speaker's chair in the House of Commons.

Retired BJ photographer Don Roese resurrected this great 1972 photo of the BJ camera guys in a day when they were a bit crazy and everyone was a bit happier about working at the BJ.With the help of Don, I think they are, sitting on the floor, Ted Walls, Ron Kuner, Julius Greenfield, Ted Schneider; standing, Paul Tople, Don Roese, Hal Bailey, Bill Hunter, Lew Henderson, Tom Marvin and Ott Gangl.Bill Hunter later headed the department after Greenie retired.

The late BJ Alums found Harry Liggett's granddaughter, Anna Teresa Liggett, continues her acting career. Her latest will be at Princess Belle in the St. Vincent-St. Mary High production of "The Beauty and the Beast" April 10-13. BJ newsroom legend Harry's son, Tom, is Anna's father. Anna also did the St. V-St. M summer camp production of "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Ring" and a St. Vincent-St. Mary High School dinner murder mystery playErin Catherine, Anna's sister, is another granddaughter. Their parents are Tom and Sue Liggett. Tom is Community Pregnancy Center director of development.Harry's other son, Bob Liggett, of Copley, performs with area bands.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Kissing sailor in famous
photo dies

Glenn McDuffie, identified by Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson as the sailor who kissed a nurse in the famous photo of the celebration of the end of World War II in New York City, died March 9 in Dallas. He was 86.The photo was taken Aug. 14, 1945, by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.McDuffie told the Associated Press that he was changing trains in New York when he was told that Japan had surrendered.

"I was so happy. I ran out in the street," said McDuffie, then 18 and on his way to visit his girlfriend in Brooklyn. "And then I saw that nurse," he said. "She saw me hollering and with a big smile on my face. ... I just went right to her and kissed her. We never spoke a word. Afterward, I just went on the subway across the street and went to Brooklyn." There's a 26-foot-tall sculpture of that moment in downtown Sarasota, Florida. Paula and I, as have many others, had ourselves photographed in the same pose in front of that copy of the World War II-ending moment.The "Unconditional Surrender" statue on Sarasota's bayfront on U.S. 41 went up in 2005. World War II veteran Jack Curran put up $500,000 to buy the statue, on the condition that it stay out front of city-owned Marina Jack.

Curran, a former signalman who served in the Pacific and European theaters, says he bought the statue for all the other guys out there like him, who were raised in the Great Depression and served their country in World War II and came home to their sweethearts. Gibson is in the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records for helping police identify more suspects than any other forensic artist.After Gibson identified McDuffie as the sailor kissing the nurse, he began a whirlwind lifestyle of going to air shows, gun shows, fundraisers and parties to tell his story. Women would pay $10 to take a picture kissing him on the cheek.McDuffie is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren. His funeral will be March 21 at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.To reach the entire article, click on http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ohio/obituary.aspx?n=glenn-mcduffie&pid=170161940